"Hey, Ven, you're back!"

Terra's warm greeting was only half of the cold shower Ventus—Ven, he was Ven now—needed after his encounter with the boy in the elevator. His cheery tone was the exact kind of friendliness Ven tended to receive from oblivious straight boys, but—well, Terra still looked the way he looked, and it hadn't exactly escaped Ven's notice.

Trapped between two hot guys. Ventus wondered if the other three residents of their cluster would be equally attractive, or if fate would have some mercy on him.

"Ven? You okay?"

Giving himself one more moment to clear his—dirty, dirty—thoughts, Ventus took a deep breath and looked back at Terra, who was sitting on his bed, a laptop on his knees. "Hey. Sorry about that. I guess it's finally sinking in that I actually moved out."

"Yeah, makes sense. Where're you from, anyway?"

Ven shrugged with an apologetic smile. "Daybreak. I know, it's like ten minutes away and I'm freaking out anyway. It's ridiculous."

"Nah, it's okay. It's a milestone. And you and your brother seem close."

"We are. My other brother, too, although he couldn't make it today." Roxas's music classes had started a week ahead of the school years, and they took up his entire afternoon. The difficult life of a prodigy, as Ven liked to tease him. "What about you?"

"It's just me. No siblings, never knew my parents, and my foster folk—well let's just say I was glad to leave the system and get into college on a football scholarship. I'm not gonna see them again anytime soon. All I have is my girlfriend. She's also a student here."

"Oh." A girlfriend? Definitely straight; not that Ventus was surprised. "Sorry to hear that. Not about you having a girlfriend, I mean…the other things."

Terra chuckled. "Thanks. And it's all right. C'est la vie, right? And before you ask, my girlfriend has her own place in the city, so you probably won't have to stay out of our room much." He punctuated that with a wink. "What about you? Got a girlfriend? Boyfriend?"

Ven squirmed at the phrasing of his question. He had come out to exactly two people in his life: his brothers. And since he hadn't had any boyfriends in high school, he hadn't needed to come out to anyone else. It hadn't even occurred to him he might have to make that decision on his very first day of being in college.

So he just averted it. "No one for me, no."

"Single and ready to mingle?"

Ven couldn't help but giggle at his cheesy line. "One thing at a time."

"Fair enough. There's plenty of time, right?" He closed his laptop and stood up, stretching in the process and giving Ven a good look at the muscles of his back. Football scholarship, indeed. "Just let me know if you do need the room. Just send me a text—here, you gotta have my number—" He reached out towards Ventus, and it took him a moment to realize Terra was asking for his phone. Sheepishly, Ven handed it over.

"Don't send prank texts," Ven warned, but Terra just rolled his eyes.

"Please, I'm too old for that shit. Anyway, as I said, you just send me a text. I promise I won't be mad. And if you need protection, I've got plenty of extra in my night stand."

Ven blinked at him a few times. "I so did not need to know that less than an hour after meeting you," he finally said, deadpan.

Terra, however, just laughed. "Sorry. Just trying to make sure you don't have any hang-ups, you know? We're stuck together for a year, might as well not waste time dancing around each other."

Ven sighed, but he was smiling. "It's all right," he said. "You're just trying to be nice."

"Speaking of which, my offer to help you unpack still stands."

He'd been hesitant earlier, but catching a glimpse of Terra's earnest smile now, Ven couldn't help but smile back. "Yeah. I'd love that, actually. I may have packed a little too much."

Setting his mind to the task and reducing their talk to practical matters was a welcome distraction from the awkwardness of their earlier conversation. It put some distance between Terra's words and Ventus's feelings, in a way that let him think about them more earnestly. He hadn't given much thought to pursuing relationships in college, or even just casually hooking up. The latter seemed unappealing for his first time, but still. Knowing that Terra would probably give him the space he needed, if he needed it, was comforting.

Besides, if he was respectful of Ven's privacy when it came to that, he hopefully wouldn't dig too deep into his family history. That was always nice to know.

Once Ventus had finished arranging his closet, he came back to find Terra crawling behind the television stand, hooking up Ven's Playstation 4. "Figured I'd take care of it," Terra said when he noticed Ven was looking at him. "Unless you mind? I probably should have asked, but I just saw your baby and I was like, sweet, man."

"Oh, it's fine. As long as you don't break it, I guess."

"I would never!" Indeed, Terra was handling the console with so much care, it felt like it really was a baby to him.

Ven chuckled. "Yeah, I believe that."

Terra looked back at him, an embarrassed grin on his face. "Am I overdoing it? Sorry, my roommate last semester didn't have anything to play on, and it made some nights so boring. It's part of why I requested a new roommate." He shrugged. "I know, I don't have anything either, so it's kind of petty. But, you know, Isa actually owned a console, he just didn't want to bring it here because he was afraid I'd break it. Which, totally unfair."

Ven sat on his bed to catch his breath. They had somehow gone through all his bags in about an hour, and Ven felt exhausted, but satisfied with himself. "Defensive much?" he teased, then, noting Terra's indignant face, he added, "Kidding. Thanks for the help with everything. And, you know, if you do break it, I'll be mad, but it wouldn't be the end of the world." It's not like he couldn't afford a replacement—or several. And his saves were pretty much all stored on the cloud anyway.

"I'll still be careful, I promise." Terra finished plugging the console, pushed the television stand back in position, and threw himself on his bed. Lazily, he reached into the minifridge and took out two more soda cans. "Want one? You can help yourself, for the record."

"Yes please," Ven said, grateful. Between his meanderings with Sora to find the room in the first place, then his embarrassment of an elevator ride, and the past hour of unpacking, he felt like he'd run a marathon. The excess sugar wouldn't hurt just this once. "So, that former roommate of yours, where is he now?"

Terra chugged from his can and lay back on his bed. "Oh, probably still somewhere in the residence. It's kind of a closed community; people usually move here after they make themselves noteworthy to the faculty one way or another. Honestly, we don't get many freshmen; I was kind of expecting my roommate to be someone I already know." He glanced at Ven. "Not that you're bad or anything. You seem pretty cool. It's just surprising is all."

Ven had surmised as much judging by the dorm's standing, but it was interesting to hear his theory confirmed. He wondered if it would make it harder to keep his family private. Still, he just shrugged. "I was just assigned this room after applying for on-campus lodging; I didn't know about—all of that." It was the truth, though he now knew exactly why he'd been assigned here.

Either Terra didn't pick up on his evasive response, or he did and chose not to press. "Don't worry too much, people are pretty welcoming, for the most part. I mean, if a guy like me could make it in here, they can't be that elitist, right?" He chuckled. "I'll help introduce you to everyone. That way you can know who's nice and who to avoid."

"I already met one of our cluster neighbors, actually," Ventus said, without really thinking about it. "Black hair, piercings, at least one tattoo, kind of a punk-goth aesthetic going on? You might not know him, he looked my age. He's probably a freshman too."

"Nah, I think I see who you mean. Vanitas Ansem."

"Ansem? As in Dean Ansem?"

"Sort of. His dad is a distant cousin of the dean, or some shit like that. A world-class scientist, and he just happened to adopt a certified genius."

Ven couldn't help but gape in disbelief. "He doesn't really look like a genius," he couldn't help but say, even though he immediately realized how shallow that sounded.

"Yeah, well. And you're right, he's your age, but he got in here a year early, so he's a sophomore now. He also works at a lab owned by his dad from time to time, and he's got a few papers published in big-name journals. And I don't mean someone ghost wrote them. He's the real deal."

"You make him sound impressive."

"Yeah, that's the right word for it. He's a bit—difficult to talk to, though. Comes with the territory, I guess." He shrugged, though Ventus noted a tension in his voice that he couldn't make sense of. "I don't think he has any friends; he even got a special derogation to be rooming alone for his spring semester last year."

"Huh." He hadn't seemed that bad from their brief interaction, embarrassing though it may have been. He had, at the very least, held the elevator for Ventus. Then again, 'not rude' was a low bar to get over. "So do you know who's in the third room in our cluster?"

"Oh, yeah, I saw them earlier. Lauriam and Ienzo. Lauriam's a senior like me. Total playboy, don't go near him if you don't like heartbreaks. Or if you're not ready to face some serious questions about your sexuality."

Ven couldn't help but chuckle. "Do I want to ask?"

Terra just shrugged. "You know. It's all on a spectrum, and we're all a little bi. I am, anyway. I'd tell you to take my word for it, but let's be honest, you'll do whatever you want. Or whatever he wants. I'm here if you need a shoulder to cry on afterwards, though."

"Thanks—I think."

"Anytime. And Ienzo, he's a total nerd. He's nice enough, super quiet and introverted, but he's great at pranks. Don't worry, though, he only targets people when he knows what they're comfortable with. Which, I guess is part of being great at pranks and not just an asshole who tries to act like he's funny."

"Sounds like you have a lot of wisdom to share about all these people."

"Yep. That's me, Terra the Wise." He laughed. "Any wisdom you want to share about yourself?"

"You know the gist of it. I'm from the suburbs, and this is as far as I could move because my brothers need me. I'm still trying to figure out almost everything about myself." He deliberated silently for a moment, then figured he should at least try to open up a little after everything Terra had shared. "The only thing I know is I'm gay, and even then, it's not like I've had any boyfriends back home. So, you know, no playboys for me. I'll be content with baby steps."

"That's the right decision," Terra said with a warm smile—one that said he understood how enormous what Ventus had just shared was. "Sounds to me you're pretty wise yourself."


Terra showed Ventus to a kebab place just outside of campus for dinner, then they headed back to the dorm. Part of Ven craved to explore more of Departure State University, but mostly he was just tired from the move. Plus, he still had three days to spare before classes started on Monday—plenty of time to get familiarized with the campus.

He said all of that to Terra when he asked if Ventus had plans for the evening, and Terra nodded in response. "Yeah, that's a good plan. If you're interested, though, there's a party at the residence tomorrow night—good opportunity to meet everyone, if you want."

"Tomorrow?" Ventus had looked forward to his first college party for pretty much as long as he'd received his acceptance letter from DSU. This was sudden, but he beamed at Terra's invitation. "That'd be awesome! Thanks for the heads-up."

"Good to hear," Terra said with a grin. "So, you up for anything tonight? My girlfriend's out of town until tomorrow, so I'm all yours tonight."

Ven chose to ignore the obvious opportunity for an innuendo. "In a moment. I want to check on my brother first."

"Didn't he say he was meeting with friends? I don't think he'll want you to call."

"My other brother," Ven explained. "I haven't seen him all day—didn't have time to say goodbye. I know I'm close to home, but—well." It was hard to put it into words, especially to someone he barely knew, but Terra nodded. "Besides, he's been through a rough time lately." He hoped his tone made it clear he wasn't up for elaborating.

"Gotcha," Terra simply said. "You want the room to yourself while you call him?"

Ventus felt a little embarrassed, yet relieved at his offer. "Yeah, if it's no bother."

With a nod and a smile, Terra left the room, closing it softly behind him as Ventus took out his laptop and opened Skype. Instantly, a text message from Roxas showed up; they'd agreed to talk when Ven was moved in, and since he'd gone out to eat, he was a little later than planned. He started the call, and Roxas picked it up almost immediately.

"Hey there, Ro!" Ventus greeted him. As soon as he saw Ventus's tired face, he realized he'd been too chipper. His brother was a perfect mirror image of Sora, though he wore his brown hair in a neglected mop while Sora constantly experimented with new styles. At the moment, it was dripping wet—and with Roxas, evening showers usually marked the end of a bad day. "Did something happen? You usually love music classes."

"Oh, no, it's not the classes. That was fine."

"So…what's wrong?" Roxas couldn't have been out of class for more than half an hour by now.

"Sora's not home."

Ventus groaned. "Didn't he warn you? I swear, I should have made sure he did—"

"He did, it's just—you know, I wanted to come to see your dorm too."

"I know, Ro," Ventus said, feeling sorry for his brother. "If you were that sad about it, I could have moved this weekend instead."

Roxas shook his head. "No, that's fine, you need the extra time on campus before classes. I mean, I hope you let me visit eventually, but it's okay. It's just—I miss you, but I was hoping Sora would be home with me tonight."

Ventus sighed. "I'm sorry, Roxas. You know your brother; he probably didn't mean to leave you on your own."

"Yeah. I know. I feel selfish for even telling you."

"Aw, come on now, don't be ridiculous. It's okay that you don't want to be alone." He considered telling Roxas what he'd told Sora—that he could always come back to live at home if they needed him—but he abstained from it. Ven had already told him that when thy first talked about him moving, and Roxas would see his repetition as patronizing. Still, he felt the need to hint at it, at least. "If it ever becomes too much—"

"I'll tell you. Of course I will."

"Great," Ventus said, smiling.

"So how's college?" Roxas asked, out of the blue, trying and failing to smile back.

Ven was tempted to ignore the obvious distraction, but he could take a hint to respect his brother's space. "It's fine—you know, what I've seen so far. I met my roommate, he's a senior, so he can show me around and introduce me to everyone." He paused. "I decided to go by Ven for now. Sora inspired the idea, kind of." He noticed Roxas's sharp intake of breath at his brother's mention, and winced at the slip. "That way I don't have to talk about our family or the company any more than I want to. We'll see how long it lasts."

"Just make sure Sora doesn't go around advertising who he is."

"He went off-campus with Riku and Kairi," Ven said. He'd enabled location sharing between his and his brothers' phones—with their approval, of course. More often than not, he had to use it to check on Sora. "So I think I'm safe for tonight."

"I hope you get to make friends before it comes out."

"Yeah, me too." The few friends he'd had in high school, he'd already lost most contact with over the summer. This was no surprise—none of them had been particularly close friends, and they had all moved far away from Daybreak or Radiant City. "What about you? Any new faces in music classes?"

Roxas shook his head. "I wish." Roxas played three instruments—clarinet, violin and piano—for which he took private lessons, and he also took classes to play as part of an orchestra, but everyone there was a few years older than him, and Ventus knew he had trouble fitting in.

"Maybe you should reconsider joining the school band."

Roxas scoffed. "I think I'd rather cut off my own fingers than join those snobs."

"All right, all right," Ven said, laughing. "You know, I think we should just promise each other to make new friends this semester."

"You know you can't actually plan for that, right?" Roxas retorted, but he was stifling a laugh as he did.

"Oh, so you can still smile," Ventus teased. "It's all about putting yourself out there, right?"

"I don't think either of us would really know how to make close friendships," Roxas said, deadpan.

Ventus laughed again at his quip. "Maybe not."

"We could ask Sora for advice."

"Better not. Can you imagine? If all three of us became like Sora, we'd probably end up in a ditch within a week."

Roxas cracked up, and finally burst out laughing. "We shouldn't be mean to him behind his back."

"He knows we love him," Ventus said, grinning.

"Yeah, I guess so." Roxas sighed.

Just then, the door opened, and Terra peeked in. "Can I come in?"

"Sure, just a sec." Ventus glanced at Roxas. "My roommate's here. Talk to you later?"

"Yeah, I should make myself dinner anyway. Don't be a stranger, Ven," he said, and he ended the call.

There was something odd about hearing his brother use the nickname—one they hadn't used in years—but it felt like a step forward for them, too. Like he was moving on with his life. He just hoped Roxas could do the same.

"Everything okay with your brother?" Terra asked as he made his way across the room.

"Oh, yeah. He was just sad he couldn't come with Sora and me." At least, Ventus hoped that's all it was.

"Good, good. So, I was thinking of turning in early, do you mind?"

Ventus shook his head absently, opening his browser and email almost as a reflex. "Yeah, I was just planning on checking social media and stuff."

"And—I usually sleep in my underwear, is that a problem?"

Part of Ventus felt nervous at the question, but Terra's phrasing made him more annoyed than anything. He looked up at him, frowning. "A 'problem'?"

"You know, because you're gay?"

"Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? The straight guy has the problem undressing in front of the gay guy?"

"I'm not totally straight, though."

"And do you have a problem if I say I sleep in my underwear? Which, for the record, I usually do too."

Terra froze, then sighed. "Point taken." He chuckled. "Just thought I'd check if you're comfortable with it. Sorry if I offended you or something."

Ventus shook his head. "No, it's fine." He returned his attention to the screen—though he had a hard time not checking out Terra as he was undressing in his periphery.